The minister said during an interaction with journalists on Friday in Abuja that the target was set by President Bola Tinubu.

The Syndicate however reports that a High Court in Kogi State had in 2023 restrained the government from concessioning the company.

In 2022, the Federal Executive Council, under former President Muhammadu Buhari approved the engagement of transaction advisors in the sum of N853m for the concession of the steel company.

The move met with heavy opposition and stalled efforts to revive the steel company which has been moribund for 45 years.

But Audu, speaking during the interview, said the planned concession is part of a three-year road map to revamp the steel company and reverse the 90 per cent importation of steel needed in the country.

He said, “About the three-year plan for Ajoakuta Steel and whether we should assume that it would start working, I think the short answer is yes.

“The three-year plan is to enable us to start production of some form of steel  in the next three years.

“So we should be able to get the light steel mill working, the engineering workshop working, we should be able to get some of the lines plants working and operating at near full capacity or full capacity.

“Part of what we would also do within that three years is to concession it to a concessionaire that has the required skill set to be able to have liquid steel production coming out of blast points. Ideally, in a perfect scenario, that’s what we would like.

“And I suspect that for the concession agreement to be worthwhile for the concessionaire, would have to be a minimum of let’s say, 10 or 30 years agreement, where they would be able to recoup their capital.”

According to him, the implementation of the road map which requires an investment of $5 billion will create 500, 000 jobs and a possible revenue of $10 billion.

Audu added that the ministry is considering all available options to avoid the mistakes of previous administrations, adding that ongoing litigation have been resolved.

“Based on the advice I’ve been provided with and based on some of the data that I’ve seen and the technical analyses that have been done, we would need between $2bn and $5bn to revive this entire Ajaokuta Steel Complex but certain things can be done in piecemeal before we resolve the entire issue with the plant.

“What we plan to do is to restart the Light Steel Mill section, which will cost us about N35 billion for us to be able to produce 50,000 metric tonnes of iron rods.

“When we achieve all of these, we expect to bring $10bn into the economy and 500,000 direct and indirect jobs for Nigerians.

“Right now, 90 per cent of our steel demand is imported and we spend in excess of $4bn annually on the importation of steel and we are going to reverse that trend.”

The minister also stated plans to commence the construction of new steel companies through foreign investors from China in order to meet local demands.

“We have also engaged with foreign investors to start new steel plants in the country. We have met with Chinese investors to look into how to set up a new steel plant in Nigeria and I am sure all of these plans will come to fruition soon.

“Part of what we need to do for this, is to identify a new location –  green field or ground field location –  that has enough land mass with the needed infrastructure.

“Ideally, where we intend to get to is to have 90 percent local production and 10 percent import,” he said.